Makira Expedition Bat Survey Results Published

Results from the bat surveys undertaken in the Makira Forest Protected Area (MFPA) during our expedition in 2023 have just been published on the Protected Areas of Madagascar Database.

Notably, two individuals of Miniopterus brachytragos were captured with mist nets over two nights and one morning session in early September 2023 in intact lowland moist evergreen forest northwest of Ambinanitelo. M. brachytragos is a poorly known bat species with even less known about its' ecology. Previously recorded from a few, ecologically disparate coastal sites that have included dry forest, tropical wet forest, gallery forest and karst forest, it is thought to be an insectivorous generalist that breeds in large roosts in caves.

Map of M. brachytragos collections adapted from (1.)

Bat surveys in Makira remain extremely limited, although Goodman (2011) previously documented a misidentified M. brachytragos roost in this forest. These captures corroborate the presence of M. brachytragos in the MFPA and lend support to a possible range expansion of this species.

Tahiry Langrand, author of the monograph said "Data on understudied taxa and regions are significant at any scale - despite this being a limited bat survey." And emphasised that this species of bat was "only described in 2021 following DNA analysis by Demos et al. 2021"

For more information, read the monograph here.

1. Goodman SM, Maminirina CP, Bradman HM, Christidis L, Appleton B. The use of molecular phylogenetic and morphological tools to identify cryptic and paraphyletic species: Examples from the diminutive long-fingered bats (Chiroptera: Miniopteridae: Miniopterus) on Madagascar. American Museum Novitates. 2009 Nov;2009(3669):1-34.